I'm a Kamen Rider!
is the first episode of Kamen Rider Ex-Aid. It features the television appearance of Ex-Aid Action Gamer Level 1. This episode broadcast was accompanied by web broadcast of the first installment of Kamen Rider Information Program: Poppy Pipopapo's Room. Synopsis Emu, a clumsy pediatrics intern takes young Sota, who is suffering a mysterious illness, to the announcement event of the latest "Mighty Action X", Sota's favorite game. Emu became a medical doctor in order to save someone's life because his life had been saved once through surgery. However, a mysterious virus emerges from Sota's body and the event turns into chaos. Emu hears from Asuna, an employee of the Ministry of Health, that transforming into a Kamen Rider can save the patient. Emu takes on this "operation" and inserts the Mighty Action X Gashat into the Gamer Driver, transforming into Kamen Rider Ex-Aid! Plot Sixteen years ago, the child Emu Hojo was in a serious accident; however, a team of doctors saved his life, and he now considers doctors to be the heroes of this world. Today, Emu is a doctor in training and rather skilled at video games, but is a bit absentminded and clumsy in other things. Meanwhile, atop a rooftop, Parado and Graphite muse over their eventual conquest of Earth. And at the Ministry of Health, Deputy Director-General Kyotaro Hinata discusses with Asuna Karino about possibly recruiting the "Genius Gamer 'M'", wishing to prevent a repeat of a tragedy 5 years prior. When Emu's latest patient, a child named Sota Suyama, runs away from the hospital, Emu chases after him, but runs into Asuna, making her drop the Gamer Driver and Mighty Action X Rider Gashat she is carrying. Sota finds the Gashat, wanting to play the game on it, Mighty Action X, scheduled to be released today. When she refuses, he drops to the ground, small orange forms briefly poking from his neck; Asuna recognizes this as a sign of the Bugster Infection, and brings Sota to CR (Cyber Rescue Center), an underground lab/headquarters beneath the hospital. Emu tries following, but is intercepted by Director Haima Kagami, telling him to leave and forget everything he saw. However, Emu remembers how the doctors saved his life and decides to help save Sota; Asuna and the Director had forgot to lock the door to CR behind them, so Emu follows them in. Though the Director says that Dr. Kagami will arrive in Japan shortly, Asuna takes the Driver and Gashat to again try to find "M". Emu finds Sota, discovering that he is also into games, and wanted to go to the launch of Mighty Action X. At the launch party, Genm Corp. CEO Kuroto Dan introduces the game Mighty Action X after 5 years of development, a side-scrolling 2D platform game with the hero Mighty. Asuna searches the crowd for "M", but instead finds Emu and Sota; Emu explains that he concluded Sota's symptoms resulted from stress over the game's release, and bringing him here would both cure and make him happy. Asuna reveals that Sota's condition is far worse and tries taking him out of line to play the game and back to CR, but in a fit, Sota transforms into a giant golem-like Bugster Union and begins wrecking the convention. Asuna explains the Bugster virus to Emu, a computer virus born from video games that has begun physically infecting people, multiplying until it takes them over completely. She says that only using the Gamer Driver and a Rider Gashat will let someone save those infected, and Emu takes them, vowing to save Sota. Asuna tries insisting that not just anyone can use them, but Emu suddenly takes on a new personality, using new, more confident personal pronouns (Japanese has many ways to say "I"); he triggers the Gashat, generating a Game Area, and transforms into Kamen Rider Ex-Aid Action Gamer Level 1. He begins fighting the Bugster Union, dodging around its attacks. He summons the Gashacon Breaker, busting open a floating chocolate block and grabbing the Speeding-Up Energy Item inside, smashing the Bugster Union and destroying it, freeing Sota. He runs over to Sota, but finds him intangible and fading from sight; Asuna says that he hasn't one yet as a swarm of tiny viruses form the Salty Bugster, based on Might Action X's final boss, Salty, and a group of Bugster Virus footsoldiers, most taking on the white robes of cooks. Ex-Aid finds the Gamer Driver function he'd been looking for; announcing himself to be the Genius Gamer M, much to Asuna's surprise, he flips open the Driver's cover and upgrades into Action Gamer Level 2. He fights the Bugster Viruses easily using the Gashacon Breaker in Hammer and Blade Modes, defeating them all as Salty enters the fight. Ex-Aid fights him back with a Hammer B Slash, before defeating him with a Mighty Critical Strike, achieving a Game Clear. Sota fully recovers within minutes, and thanks his doctor. From a distance, Taiga Hanaya watches things unfold through a handheld sniper rifle scope. Kiriya Kujo examines the destruction in the aftermath of the Mighty Action X launch party. Hiiro Kagami is being driven from the airport, hearing of but finding no interest in Emu, another Gamer Driver sitting beside him. Back at CR, Asuna tells Emu that the department is for combating the Bugsters, also unveiling her true form, a dancing game character named Poppy Pipopapo—Asuna is her disguise for outside of CR. She tells Emu that there are ten Gashat games that must be cleared to save humanity. Cast * : * : * : * : * : * : * : * : * : * : * : Guest Cast * : * : *Emu Hojo (Child): * : *Medic: *Maruo's mother: * : Suit actors *Kamen Rider Ex-Aid Level 1: *Kamen Rider Ex-Aid Level 2: *Graphite Bugster: *Salty Bugster: *Bugster Virus: Various Rider Gashat *'Gashat Used:' **Mighty Action X *'Level Used:' **Action Gamer Level 1, Action Gamer Level 2 Energy Items *'Energy Items Used:' **Speeding-Up Errors *When Ex-Aid Levels Up, the CGI sequence shows the Gamer Driver's handle/cover as simultaneously shut and flipped open, resulting in a weird mesh that covers up the Rider's center portrait on the Driver. Thankfully, this has been corrected as of the next episode. **The home release of this episode also fixed the error. Notes *As part of Super Hero Time, this episode aired alongside episode 32, . *'Viewership': 5.3% *'Closing Screen': **Text Color: Pink *'Count at episode end' **'Gashats in Ex-Aid's possession': Mighty Action X **'Gashats in Brave's possession': Taddle Quest **'Games Cleared': Mighty Action X *'Video Game References in the episode:' ** The gamepad that Emu receives from the doctor during his childhood is actually a , a handheld console created by Bandai which lasted from 1999 to 2003. **Emu mentions that Mighty, the main character from Mighty Action X, "eats to get stronger". This alludes to other game characters who share such an ability such as Kirby or Pac-Man. **When moving around in his Level 1 form, Ex-Aid curls up into a ball and dashes like Sonic the Hedgehog. **The episode establishes that some Rider attacks seem to operate in a rhythm pattern similar to certain games where the timing of the player's reaction determines the strength of the attack such as in quicktime events. **The Genm Corporation's exclusive tech demo of Mighty Action X at a convention hall is a reference to gaming conventions like the Tokyo Game Show or E3 where new video games are unveiled by publishers. **The Gamer Driver upon activation shows a projection of a character select screen featuring most of the Kamen Riders in the series. Character select screens are often used in fighting games or arcade games. It also projects a stage select screen which is often used in older adventure games or in some older platformers like Mega Man. **The Golem Giant Virus Ex-Aid fights loosely resembles the Yellow Devil enemy from the Mega Man games, aside from having two eyes. *Just like Ghost's first episode, this episode takes its name from part of the main Rider's transformation announcement. **Also like that episode, the show's intro theme isn't first played until near the end of the episode. * Kyotaro Hinata's office is the same room as the office of Soichi Makage from Kamen Rider Drive. *Emu's flashbacks upon Mighty Action X are likely archive footages taken from the actual game. DVD/Blu-ray releases *Kamen Rider Ex-Aid Volume 1 features episodes 1-4: I'm a Kamen Rider!, Another Prodigy with No Thank You?, BANG, That Jerk is Coming! and An Operation Called Dash!. *Blu-ray Collection 1 comes with 12 episodes. Ex-Aid Vol 1.jpg|''Kamen Rider Ex-Aid'' Volume 1, DVD 91zGeAfZ8UL SL1474 .jpg|''Kamen Rider Ex-Aid'' Collection 1, Blu-ray External links *TV Asahi's official episode guide for I’m a 仮面ライダー！ *Toei TV's official episode guide for I’m a 仮面ライダー！ References Category:Season Premieres